Liberal senator gets full apology from NDP for 'unfounded' attack — five months later

A Senate Liberal has received a full apology from the New Democrats, who say that information used to attack Sen. Marie-P. Charette-Poulin over her attendance was “unfounded.”

In a January release, sent out as part of the NDP’s ongoing efforts to discredit the Senate and push for its abolition, the party alleged Charette-Poulin had the worst attendance record of any senator since the 2011 election.

But on Thursday afternoon, the party retracted its statements, using wording that suggested the apology would avoid legal action.

“The NDP retracts all its remarks to the effect that Senator Marie-P. Charette-Poulin had the worst record of absenteeism in the 41st Parliament and about her lack of voting,” said the online statement from NDP president Rebecca Blaikie.

“The NDP offers its sincere, complete and unconditional apologies to Senator Marie-P. Charette-Poulin for having spread unfounded information on the NDP website regarding her absenteeism and voting record.”

Charette-Poulin did not immediately return a request for comment.

The NDP had told Postmedia News in January that it came to its conclusions by looking at the Senate journals to determine who was in the Senate chamber on any given day, and who was off attending to other business.

The Senate tracks attendance, only allowing its members to miss 21 sitting days a year before they are docked pay. (A similar attendance rule doesn’t exist in the House of Commons.)

According to a letter Charette-Poulin received from the clerk of the Senate, she missed 38 of 208 sitting days — 16 of those were for medical leave, three for personal reasons and 19 days were for Senate business. And since June 2, 2011, the letter said, Charette-Poulin missed 26 of 70 votes, eight while she was on medical leave and seven while she was attending to other Senate business.